The Challenge of Waking
by Marcus DiStefano
Summary: This is a story about how a fun college morning of banter and hunting with Edward and Bella went awry. Set after the end of Eclipse. Yes, i brought it back.
1. Wake up

**A/N: Not mine! I only wish I had the creativity to invent such characters. This is my first story, so bear with me and please read and review. Thx. ;)**

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**The Challenge of Waking**

**Chapter 1: Wake Up**

**Bella's Point of View**

"Wake up, love. You're already late enough as it is…"

It wasn't the greatest thing to wake up to, but then again it wasn't the worst, either. It was still _his_ voice, which is what I liked about it. I didn't like that I was late to school, but as long as I was with Edward I didn't care too much.

"What?!" I exclaimed as I lunged from my bed to gather my necessities. "How am I late already? What t - 9:00?!"

"I suppose that it's because of that ancient alarm clock of yours. It was bound to cease functioning soon," Edward answered.

"So then why couldn't you wake me up?" I snapped back.

"You just looked so peaceful… It still fascinates me that you sleep at all now that you're changed. And you know how partial I am to hearing what you say when you sleep. I almost get more information out of you when you're asleep than when you're awake," he replied, winking.

"Edward Cullen, here I thought _you_ were the responsible one in the relationship," I quipped. Already I was softening; his eyes had as much an effect on my mood as Jasper. I could never fight with him unless he wanted me too, and I hardly ever wanted to anyway. "I wish you'd stop doing th- actually, no I don't." I winked at him before jumping into his lap.

He bent down to whisper in my ear, "Just because you seem to have forgiven me doesn't mean you have to stop getting ready."

I arched my neck back and kissed him. "I've decided to stay home today; well, at least with you, wherever you happen to be for the rest of the day"

"With you of course, at school."

"O, come on! Can't you just call and say I'm sick. I know how good you are at mimicking Carlisle's voice. No one would doubt it was him…"

"But that's not my point, my love. This is college. You promised me two things before I would turn you myself: Marriage and College. You've done the first one, which I greatly appreciate," He paused to kiss the top of my head lovingly, "but you keep trying to back out of the second. I held up my end of the bargain. Now it's your turn." His expression had gone from chiding to scolding in all of three seconds.

"Oh, all right. I still don't see why you couldn't just wake me up on time, though. If you had, then we wouldn't even have begun this argument," I reasoned.

"Bella, sometimes you seem to forget yourself. We've had this same argument every day this month about whether or not to go to school."

"Well, if you would just wait to dazzle me until after I have some resolve about waking up to go to class, we wouldn't have that problem." Again with the eyes! I so want to be frustrated with him, and I can definitely realize that, but those eyes. That molten hazel just melts my resolve. "Fine," I conceded. "I'll go..."

"I figured you would see it my way. You talk more in your sleep than you suspect," he said, a smirk on his face.

"What do you mean?"

"_Those eyes! How could I ever disagree with those eyes?_" he said, perfectly sounding like me when I'm too tired to think.

My face would have been scarlet by the end of his reverie, had I still been human. As it was, I didn't need to have the hot blood rushing to the suface under my cheeks for Edward to understand my feelings just then.

"You were so adorable when you would blush," he bent down to kiss my cold cheek. "You still are, too. Oh! Hurry, hurry, my love; it's 9:30 already," he said with a wink, handing me my toiletries.

I began to walk over to the bathroom. "This conversation isn't over." I turned around. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're still sitting there," I said, my own mischievous smirk blossoming.

"You do have to get ready. That would not help," he said, instantly knowing what I meant.

Now that I was a vampire, we didn't have the same limitations on our love anymore.

"Oh, come on. You know you want to," I chided, now back in his lap. "Besides, LaMont's class ends in 45 minutes. I can skip the rest of that boring lecture. I'll just go straight to Fortier's class instead, which leaves me with, oh, somewhere around an hour to do whatever I please with you," I continued as I pressed myself against him.

"Well, if you put it that way." He flashed that grin of his that I adore so much. I loved that _I_ could influence _him_ now.

**A/N: Yes, I do realize that I said Bella was sleeping and that she is a vampire. That was not a mistake. I attributed it to the suggestion in Eclipse that she would have strong mental powers of some sort upon becoming a vampire; she remembers having to sleep as a human, so her brain tells her that she should need sleep.**


	2. Clean Me Anytime

**A/N: Ok. So here's the next chapter. As you might have noticed, the rating just went up to M. In all fairness, I most likely will write a censored version of this story, since I started with just T. My "editors" agreed that I should make a lemon to follow the last chapter and it interested me, so here goes. I hope it's not too, too bad. ;)**

**PS: Not mine! Edward and Bella are Stephenie Meyer's. Tear. I wish I was that creative.**

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**The Challenge of Waking**

**Chapter 2: Clean Me Anytime**

**Edward's Point of View**

"Well, if you put it that way." I grinned, making Bella squirm with excitement. She loved that crooked grin of mine, and, like my 'dazzling' eyes, I utilized this asset whenever I deemed necessary… or whenever I felt like exciting her.

"Come here, you," she said as she dragged me towards the shower with her new vampiric strength.

In the blink of an eye, our clothes were in a mound on the bathroom floor, and we were caught up in our passion, standing just outside the shower curtain. While my right hand ran through her hair, my left roamed up the back of her upper thigh, making it's way slowly to the middle of her back.

Then I lowered both my hands and lifted her onto me. She wrapped her legs around my waist and grinded against my abdomen. We still hadn't parted our mouths from our kiss; it was much easier to kiss her now that I no longer had to worry about breaking her fragile human body.

I broke our kiss then, with her still gyrating against me, and looked at her. She found it comical when I did this; she knew I acted as such just to "check her out" as the common vernacular stated. I just couldn't help it. She was ravishing before gaining our vampiric, supernatural beauty, and now she was completely stunning with her pale skin and alluring curves.

I leaned in as if to kiss her, but changed course at the last second, smirking at the faux astonishment on Bella's face. I kissed her neck and slowly moved my trail of kisses up to her ear, which I took between my lips, nibbling playfully. I felt her squirm with pleasure, and then I pulled back slightly and whispered in her ear, "I love you."

"I love you, too," she whispered into my ear in return.

I gave up on the idea of going into the shower and made my way to the bed with Bella still on my front with her legs wrapped around my waist. I stood at the edge of the bed and slowly lowered her down onto her back in front of me, again admiring her curves as she arched her back to reach the bed and aid in her positioning.

As she finally landed on her back and loosened her hold on my waist, I bent and lay on top of her, pressing the length of my body against hers. I kissed her, deftly slipping my tongue over and past her lips, and she reciprocated. My hands rose sensually up her body from her hips and up her stomach to her breasts; I cupped them in my hands and was rewarded by her hands sliding quickly up my back to entwine themselves in my hair, massaging my scalp. I then broke the kiss and led a trail of kisses down her jaw line to her neck and from her neck to her breasts. I took the nub that was her right nipple, hard with arousal, into my mouth, gently massaging with my tongue, while I massaged her left with my hand. I switched to the left for a while and then continued the trail of kisses further down.

Now, Bella was quivering with excitement again, as my kisses reached her hips. I then brought my hand to her folds slowing sticking in one finger at a time, watching her spasm each time. I slowly massaged her from within, and then I removed my hand and entered her with my tongue. Her involuntary spasm almost made me exit her, but I matched her movements. She wrapped her legs around my back, pulling me closer and pushing me farther into her.

I pulled myself back up, and quieted her with a passionate kiss as I positioned myself between her legs again. Her legs wrapped around my own, arousing me further. I rubbed myself against her delicate folds without entering, moving my hips up and down.

"Edward," she attempted to whine, rather unconvincingly, "Just do it, will ya?" She giggled as I raised an eyebrow at her comical choice of words. "I guess I have to take matters into my own hands," she said as she grabbed my shoulders and flipped our positions. She then sat up, her rear resting on my thighs. I began to sit up to kiss her when she suddenly leaned down, taking my wrists in her hands, and pinned me to the bed with my arms above my head.

She then pressed her lips to mine, and our tongues danced in graceful patterns in each other's mouths. She then moved her mouth to my ear, nibbled playfully, and whispered, "My turn."

She then made a trail of kisses from my ear down my jaw. She kissed my neck and then continued her trail farther and farther down, until she was past my hips. She then took me into her mouth, causing me to gasp at the pleasure it brought me. She massaged me with her tongue, causing me to spasm with the intense pleasure.

She then backed off and returned to my face to kiss me again. I grabbed her hips and moved her on top of me, finally entering her, and we both moaned with the pleasure it caused. She gyrated again on top of me, leading to more moaning from both of us, as I met each motion of hers with one of my own, doubling the pleasure it brought.

We then both climaxed at the same time, each of us gasping out the other's name.

"I love you, Bella," I said as I picked her up and, with her legs wrapped around my waist again, started walking back towards the shower.

"I love you, too, Edward."

I kissed her lightly on the cheek as I turned on the water. "Now we've got to get you clean," I said with a wink.

"Edward," she started, looking at me with a mischievous look on her face, "you can help me get clean anytime."

I kissed her again as I carried her into the shower.

**A/N: Alrighty, so there's Chapter 2. I hope it wasn't too over the top. Please read and review. Thx.**


	3. All knowing

**A/N: I know. I'm sorry it took so long to write this chapter. I had some cramming to do for finals, so I was avoiding any and all distractions... Well, here's chapter 3. It starts off right where 2 ended. And it's in Bella's point of view.**

**PS: Not mine! Edward and Bella are Stephenie Meyer's. Tear. I wish I was that creative.**

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**The Challenge of Waking**

**Chapter 3: All-Knowing**

**BPOV**

_He kissed me again as he carried me to the shower._

"You're going to be late," I heard him say as I turned on the hot water for my shower.

"_Edward,_" I whined back at him. "Why must you be so protective about my 'human experiences'? You do realize that I couldn't possibly care less about these experiences as long as I have you, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes. I've heard the same speech over a hundred times now. But I don't care. Even if you don't care about enjoying what few human experiences you can, this is more than that."

"What do you mean?" I was completely perplexed. What else could this be, if not just another human experience to drag me through?

"Consider it as part of becoming a Cullen," he started out light heartedly. "For one thing, you promised you would, so I'll hold you to your word. And secondly, we all go to school. You don't just automatically learn all there is to know by becoming a vampire. We're all this smart because we've had years of schooling." His voice had become really stern and parental by the end of his little speech.

"Oh… I never thought of it that way. You've been all-knowing since before I met you, so I kinda took it for granted."

He laughed at my choice of words. "'All-knowing'? You know, sometimes I really wish I could hear your thoughts to see how you rationalize some of the things you say."

I hit him playfully on the arm. "Oh, shush, Edward Cullen. That's the first thing that came to my mind."

"Alright, I'll let you off the hook this time," he said, flashing me that crooked grin I love so much. "Now move over. You aren't the only one who has school today." He winked at me as he climbed into the shower with me.

"If I must," I replied, with a mask of fake frustration on my face.

So we hurried, moving as fast as we could to clean ourselves in the confines of the tiny dorm shower.

"Why in the world do we have to live in the dorms?" I asked exasperatedly after accidentally hitting his nose with my elbow for like the fourth time. "This shower is tiny!"

"This is where the idea of your first time through college being a human experience comes into play. Every other time through college after this, we'll live off-campus in some house my family owns nearby, but for now you have to have your typical human college experience." I just stared at him as if that would change the situation somehow. "Oh, and I don't believe the shower was made for two," he added, with a smirk.

"You think?" I snapped back before smiling and kissing him.

We passed the rest of our shower in silence, every once in a while kissing each other. When we were finally satisfied with our cleanliness, we exited the shower, rather ungracefully for vampires; we both went for the door at the same time and ran into each other. That got us both laughing as he stepped back and let me go first, no doubt to check me out again.

"I swear I'll never get used to that," I said as I turned around to find him, sure enough, checking me out again.

"Get used to what?" he replied, his eyes just now making their way up to meet mine.

"You checking me out, like I'm some kind of supermodel or something."

"But you might as well be. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror lately?" he inquired.

"Just my face to do my make up" I replied.

"Well then take a look, and you'll see what I mean," he said, using a spare towel to wipe the steam from the shower off the bathroom mirror.

"Oh, alright," I replied, as I looked back at the mirror.

I knew what my face would look like, so I wasn't too surprised by the face I saw staring back at me with those startling eyes. I had to wear colored contacts to school so that no one would notice my eyes. They were multicolor. They were mostly the molten topaz that I'd grown to recognize in the eyes of my new family of "herbivore" vampires, but they also were ever so slightly marked with a tinge of red due to the blood still left in my body from when I was human a mere six months ago. So if I didn't wear the contacts, my eyes seemed to constantly change color depending on the angle you saw them from.

But like I said, I was used to that now, so that didn't surprise me. What did surprise me was the rest of my body. I found it odd that I hadn't once looked at myself naked in a mirror in six months. If I had, I might've understood where Edward was coming from. I was stunning. At first I didn't believe that the body I saw in the mirror was me, but then I saw Edward in the mirror next to me and realized that it must have been me.

Then Edward came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. "See what I mean? You could easily be a supermodel," he whispered in my ear.

Then something else caught my eye in the mirror: Edward's watch sitting on the bathroom counter. I quickly turned around to check it without the mirror and realized that I was right.

"Uh… Edward?" I said, as he kissed the back of my neck.

"Yes, my love?"

"You do realize that we're still not dressed, right?"

"Yeah, so?" he replied, a quizzical look on his face.

"Well, it's 9:50. I have to be dressed and in Fortier's class in ten minutes."

"I suggest you hurry, then," he replied with a smirk as he let me go so I could get dressed.

**A/N: Well, there you have it. Chapter 3. I do realize that this is almost completely fluff, so bear with me. I can't figure out what to do for a plot. Please leave reviews, and I'd be happy to listen to any suggestions for plotlines.**


	4. Just This Once

**A/N: Sorry I've taken so long to write this. I've been struggling with major writer's block and this wasn't very high on ny list of things to do, so it kinda got forgotten. Anyways, here's the next chapter. I actually wrote 4 and 5 at the same time, so it'll be up soon too.Please read and review. Thx.**

**PS: Not mine! Edward and Bella are Stephenie Meyer's. Tear. I wish I was that creative.**

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**The Challenge of Waking**

**Chapter 4: Just This Once**

**BPOV**

_"I suggest you hurry, then," he replied with a smirk as he let me go so I could get dressed._

You'd think that I would be able to get dressed faster with my newly attained vampiric agility like Edward's… wrong. I was still young and unaccustomed to my new strength and agility. We'd already replaced the doorknob about a dozen times because of me forgetting my strength. And when I tried to get dressed too fast, it always ended up with me standing dumbstruck, looking at the ribbons that were left of the clothes I had been trying to put on. So despite being in a huge hurry to make it to class, I still had to slow down. Edward tried to help, but his close proximity was not conducive to me getting anything done.

"_Edward!_" I whined after he distracted me yet again with yet another of his seductive kisses.

"_Yes_, my love?" he replied, a chuckle sneaking into his reply.

"You're not helping."

"On the contrary, you were entirely nude five minutes ago and since then I have assisted in putting on your bra and panties."

"Yes, but five minutes is a bit long for just that, especially since it's you who insisted that I should hurry to class." I gave him a crooked smile of my own, lying down next to him on the bed.

"So maybe I saw the error in my argument," he replied winking. "Besides, it's not like you seem to mind it."

Of course I didn't mind it; it's all I wanted. I sighed, feigning disappointment. "Oh, I suppose I could get my way just this once."

"Just this once," he agreed, beginning to sit up. "We can't be making a habit out of dismissing your important human experiences." His voice had a serious air to it by the end.

I sat up and leaned on his arm, hugging him like a child does to thank his dad. "Ok," I said softly. "So what do you want to do today, then?"

"I don't know," he responded. "Your eyes are looking a little dark; we should probably go hunting."

I nodded in agreement, but quailed at the thought. It must have shown on my face.

"Oh, that's right. We don't have to hunt, if you still don't want to do it."

He was referring to another of my unique traits as a vampire; I wouldn't hunt. It wasn't that I didn't have the means too. I was just as fast as Edward and I'd even made true on my promise to beat Emmet at arm wrestling with my newborn strength. No, it wasn't lack of ability.

I had inherited Edward's ability to read minds with a couple of twists. The first was that I could choose to immerse myself in their vision as if I could see through their eyes; the second was that it worked with animals, too.

A week after my transformation, Carlisle decided that I should go hunting with Emmett and Edward in the woods behind their house in Forks. So I went and my instincts took over, utilizing my ability to immerse myself in the thoughts of the animals… It still made me shiver to remember that first hunt. I found the animals easy enough and heard their mental cries of anguish and since then had refused to hunt at all. Edward had been hunting alone and bringing me back animals with their necks snapped for me to feed from so that I wouldn't have to hear their cries in my head.

"It's ok. It's been a month or two, and I really need it, but I don't want to be away from you, so I'll go, I guess," I blurted out.

"You know, you may not need to breathe to stay alive, but it is necessary for talking," he said with a wink, commenting on my rushed speech.

"Oops," I replied lamely. Then I kissed him, pulling back for a second to quip, "At least I don't need breath for this." Then I continued to kiss him.

He pulled away with a smirk. "Let's get on our way, my fierce little bride."


	5. Guardian Angel

**A/N: OMG! This chapter took sooo long to put up! I was temporarily without a computer. Darn unreliable electronics! Here's chapter 5. It finally has a plot!**

**PS: Not mine! Edward and Bella are Stephenie Meyer's. Tear. I wish I was that creative.**

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**The Challenge of Waking**

**Chapter 5: Guardian Angel**

**BPOV**

"_Let's get on our way, my fierce little bride."_

And with that I reluctantly stood up and followed him to the hallway. In five minutes, we were free, out hunting in the forest behind our conveniently placed dorms.

I had become much better at blocking out the incessant drone of all the minds around me, so the hunt was actually bearable. The hunt was exhilarating. Since I could finally hunt for myself now, I didn't feel so helpless anymore. We began heading back to the dorms a few hours later full to contentment and walking slowly, hand in hand.

We were about ten miles from the dorms when we heard a scream a bit to our right. Instantly, Edward and I tuned into the voices in our heads, trying to find the girl who had screamed. It took just a few moments, and she was indeed scared, but her thoughts were in such a panicked frenzy that we couldn't find out what was scaring her.

Edward turned to me, "What is she seeing? Does she need our help?"

So I delved into her mind to see through her eyes, hoping that she'd just been scared by a passing snake, so we could continue on our way home – and instantly froze in my tracks.

"What?" Edward asked, realizing that I had come to a sudden stop.

"It can't be," I replied, not really answering him. I was too stunned to think of a response; I checked the girl's thoughts again to be sure of what I'd seen. "No!"

"_What is it?_" Edward demanded further, coming closer since I looked to be on the verge of passing out.

"It's Esme," I finally managed to breathe out.

He froze in his tracks, obviously put on edge. "You mean Esme's in tr-"

"No. Esme is the trouble. The girl in trouble is a little eight year old girl named Kara."

"_What?!_ That's not possible."

And with that he broke off sprinting in the girl's direction with me left to chase him. I beat him there to find Kara alone, curled up a ball on the ground. She was a little scratched but thankfully unbitten. Edward was close behind me and burst into the clearing checking all directions for anything to prove it wasn't Esme.

I walked to where Kara lay crying and knelt down next to her. "Kara," I whispered. She trembled at the sound of my voice.

"What do you want with me?" she sobbed.

"No, no, sweetheart. Everything's okay. That other woman's gone. Look up, sweetie."

She risked a peek through her fingers. "Oh!" Her face lit up with relief. "I thought you were _her_ come back again with that same beautiful voice."

"No, she… ran away."

"Oh, good… wait. How do you know my name? Who are you? Are you like my guardian angel or something?" Her face was bright with wonder, and she was desperately hoping that I would say yes.

"You could say that," I fibbed. "You _are_ safe now."

Just then, Edward returned from checking the perimeter for the culprit. He face was contorted with anger I hadn't seen in him since our troubles with Victoria and her newborns. Kara shied away from the sight of him, trembling with fear and hiding behind me. I could tell from her thoughts that she was terrified of this newcomer to the clearing.

"Wh-who's th-that?" she managed to stammer out in a whisper close to my ear, still scared and hiding behind me.

"That's Edward," I replied, turning my attention from her to Edward. "Edward, come say hi to Kara."

My voice brought him out of his brooding, and he relaxed to become more amicable, realizing the terror he was causing in Kara. He smiled his most innocent smile and came closer to me and Kara to say hi.

"Hello, Kara. I am terribly sorry that I frightened you," he said softly to Kara. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I guess," she replied still hiding behind me, unsure about Edward.

Sensing her doubt about Edward, I said, "It's okay, Kara. Edward's a friend of mine. He'd never hurt you."

"Of course not," Edward chimed in.

"Are you sure? He looked kinda scary a minute ago," Kara continued.

"I promise," Edward said, sitting down next to me with his hands in his lap.

"Okay," she replied, still sounding a little doubtful.

Then Edward made a big, goofy smiley face to cheer her up. She and I both lost it and started laughing. It was definitely enough to sheer up Kara – the next thing I knew, she had jumped come in front of me and plopped herself down on my lap like I was her big sister.

Then he stopped laughing suddenly. "Wait a minute," she started, "you still didn't tell me _your_ name." She looked up at me expectantly.

"Oh," I said, relieved by the cause of the sudden end to her laughter. "I'm sorry, sweetie. My name is Bella."

"Bella. Okay."

We sat and relaxed a few minutes just listening to the sounds of the forest around us. Edward was the one to break the silence.

"Bella, can I talk to you alone for a moment?" he said, motioning to the other side of the clearing with a stern look on his face.

"Okay," I replied. As Edward walked to the edge of the clearing, I turned to Kara and said, "I need to go over there and talk to Edward for a sec. Can you stay right here where I can see you just for a minute or so?"

"Okay," she replied, getting off my lap to sit on a tree stump.

So then I walked over to Edward and waited for him to say what he had on his mind.

"We should probably leave here before it gets dark," he started.

"Where will we be going? It's not like we can show up at our dorm with a child that no one has seen us with before."

"My family has a house a little bit east of the college. We could go there while we try to figure all of this out."

"What if Esme's there? It sure looked like her through Kara's eyes. I wouldn't want to risk taking Kara right back to her."

"I still don't think that it was Esme, but I'll go check the house to make sure that it's empty just to be safe."

"Okay. Go now, and, if it's safe, bring the car to the parking lot in front of the trail entrance, and I'll walk Kara there. It doesn't seem as if she knows about any vampires, so let's keep our actions human."

"All right. I'll see you at the parking lot. I love you," he said.

"I love you, too," I responded, kissing him on the cheek. "Be safe."

With that, he walked out of the clearing and then started running once he was out of sight.

**A/N: I hope you liked it. Please read and review; more reviews encourage me to keep going.**


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